electric relaxation

Most of you have already heard my rant about this, but I wanted to preserve it here for posterity. That people actually might believe in the validity of this enterprise fills me with seething rage.

I actually spent some time pondering why I find this crap so offensive, and I think I figured it out: it’s the belief that participation in this activity is actually a positive, objective contribution to something so nebulous and incommensurate as peace, when, in any conceivable way that such contributions could be measured, this would rank far lower than say, registering to vote, or participating in the established political process. What’s so wrong with admitting that hip-hop and yoga are just pure, base entertainment rather than agents for social change? Why do people feel so guilty about hedonism?

God I hate hippies.

Ride: 1957 Ford Fairlane
Where: I-280 S near Daly City

It’s hard to tell from the two shots I have, but I’m pretty sure this is a 1957 Ford Fairlane, based on an eyeball comparison of the rear flares with the pictures on this Fairlane page I found. Which I think means that that crazy roof you see might actually be retractable - if you don’t think it’s possible, check out the link, the mechanism is ridiculous. Though it looks like they also sold straight non-convertible models so perhaps this is one of those.

This is the kind of thing I’d write if I had the talent. Wired does a send up of this whole situation.

Wired News: The Ultimate Blog Post

So I wanted the ability to map a key combination that would accomplish the following:

        if (Rhythmbox is running) then
                if (Rhythmbox is visible) then
                        hide Rhythmbox
                else
                        show Rhythmbox
                endif
        else
                start Rhythmbox
                show Rhythmbox
        endif

In other words, a Rhythmbox toggle. Rhythmbox already has a show/hide check option in the tray icon UI, and the rhythmbox-client remote control program that comes with the source package exposes a hide option, so I figured it couldn’t be that hard.

Turns out the DBus Python bindings make this very straightforward. But I ran into an previously unfiled bug in the Python bindings; namely that they define the values for some random constants incorrectly.

[Update: The bug has been fixed.]

It’s funny how all these IPC messaging systems - DBus, COM, VMOMI/VMODL - always end up looking pretty much the same. There are no new ideas, or so goes the saying.

Anyway, here’s the code:

#!/usr/bin/python
import dbus

# These are defined incorrectly in dbus.dbus_bindings
DBUS_START_REPLY_SUCCESS = 1
DBUS_START_REPLY_ALREADY_RUNNING = 2

# Get the current session bus
bus = dbus.SessionBus()

# Explicitly try to start Rhythmbox.
(success, status) = bus.start_service_by_name('org.gnome.Rhythmbox')

# If we started it, make sure we explicitly show it
force_visible = (status == DBUS_START_REPLY_SUCCESS)

# Open the Rhythmbox shell object and get its properties
rbshellobj = bus.get_object('org.gnome.Rhythmbox', '/org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Shell')
rbprops = dbus.Interface(rbshellobj, 'org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties')

# Toggle the visibility value from its current setting
is_visible = rbprops.Get('org.gnome.Rhythmbox.Shell', 'visibility')
rbprops.Set('org.gnome.Rhythmbox.Shell', 'visibility', force_visible or (not is_visible))

I can now selectively stream audio from my Ubuntu laptop over to my Windows Media Center HTPC using the Enlightenment Sound Daemon. The esound package has apparently been part of Cygwin for a while now. I had originally planned to set this up using VMware, i.e. by running esd in a guest VM on my Windows MCE machine; having esound on the host makes things even easier:

1. Install Cygwin, and select the esound and cygrunsrv packages in addition to the default set.
2. Configure esd to run as a service:

   $ cygrunsrv -I esd -p /usr/bin/esd -a ‘-tcp -public’ \                       -d ‘Enlightenment Sound Daemon’


3. Start esd: net start esd

That’s it. To play sound on the machine from any gstreamer-based application:

1. Run gstreamer-propertiers and choose ESD as the default audio output plugin.
2. Start up a gstreamer-based application, like Rhythmbox, with the ESPEAKER environment variable set to yourhost:16001:

   $ ESPEAKER=mce:16001 rhythmbox

3. Start playing music and watch the magic happen.

You can even play sound locally while streaming remotely, since only the applications using the custom ESPEAKER variable will push their audio remotely.

Update:
My office mate informs me that the Pulse Audio system is essentially a “much better version of ESD”. I can’t imagine it’s really worth switching over since everything works well enough for my needs right now, but I’ll probably give it a shot anyway because I’m a sucker.

So the naysayers were right. Buying songs from iTunes was a bad idea. It’s not like I have that much music locked away in FairPlay, but I’m frustrated that 1) I’m not able to play it back or really manage it much from my Linux machine and 2) the only remaining active authorization I have is for my computer at work and I can’t reset my authorizations until December.

Anyway so despite my disdain for Ginzton and others who actually purchase physical media, I’m starting to come around that perhaps that’s the way to go. Especially considering that the CD selection at Amazon pretty much destroys even the best of the music services offerings. The only problem with this whole scheme is the lack of instant gratification (well that and the shipping cost, but let’s assume I’m willing to buy two or three CDs at a time to put me over the $25 limit).

So it would be nice if there were a service that let you stream music once you had purchased it *and* sent you the physical media in due course. I wonder how much of Rhapsody’s operating costs come from the service bandwidth. Other than anecdotal rumormongering that bandwidth cost is the primary reason iTunes doesn’t offer higher quality files, I’ve got no insight into this area. As an aside, I actually think the reason iTMS uses 128kbps is to keep sizes down for portable players, but that’s neither here nor there.

Ride: Some kind of old Euro bike
Where: Potrero, near 17th and Missouri

I could swear this is the second or maybe even third time I’ve seen a bike with sidecar in the wild, but I’ve yet to see one actually in action. It strikes me as one of the most genuinely ridiculous forms of conveyance ever conceived.

Update:
Ahh the rush of vindication. And the stinging pain of defeat. Google Rage is such an intoxicating stimulant…

I found a pretty cool comic book shop in Hayes Valley called Isotope, and managed to kill most of my afternoon there. I feel like I’ve walked by the place before but they were closed or maybe hadn’t even fully opened up yet. It hasn’t been there very long according to their website, though they used to be located somewhere else in the city.

Anyway it has three very attractive properties:

1. It’s walking distance from my house
2. There’s a lot of space, with comfy chairs and couches
3. They play good music: lots of DJ Shadow and NInja Tune stuff

I might have just gotten lucky on the music front, but the space issue is huge. Most other comic book places are tiny so you’re constantly dodging and squeezing by people. I like to spend ridiculous amounts of time meticulously poring through the trade paperback selections, which is a much more pleasant experience when you have room to maneuver.

I found out about this place because it was the first hit on Google for “comics san francisco”. I was actually trying to find Al’s Comics which is also close by and sounds pretty cool. Maybe I’ll go check them out tomorrow. Jai said that place sucks but I figured I ought to form my own opinion.

Update:
Note that they’re pretty serious about providing seating and encouraging you to lounge, it’s not just for show. I actually read the entire first volume of Hard Time while I was there.

I’ve only had an account with EmigrantDirect for a few months, but I’ve already gone through two iterations of upgraded security measures. It took me 10 minutes just to come up with a version of my username secure enough for the web site. This latest round involved logging in with a secure ten digit access code which arrived in the mail. Unfortunately, I either never received, or perhaps I mistakenly threw out, the mail in question. I figured I’d have to call them, then wait another two weeks for a new mail to show up. However, they instead offered a strange alternative: the customer service rep gave me the first five characters of a temporary code, and then their computer system e-mailed me the last five. I’d never seen this particular device employed before, it seems like a reasonably clever and convenient solution to the problem of employee trust.

So once I made it past this first obstacle, I was presented with a form with ten security questions (actually five questions and five blank entries which I was supposed to use to provide up to five more). I had to provide answers to at least five questions from this common set.

Once I finally made it through that, their website went down. Presumably this is yet another new twist, and I have to find my way to the new website using a port knocking code scratched on the underside of the toilet seat at the 500 Club down the street.

Ride: Chevrolet Caprice
Where: c/o VMware, Inc., 3145 Porter Dr., Palo Alto, CA

I suppose this might actually belong to one of the Stem Cells people. Or maybe it’s Heman’s ride. I bet he gets all the Epson ladies with this beast. Anyway, this is the sixth truly ridiculous car I’ve encountered in a VMware parking lot. I can’t decide where it actually ranks amongs that distinguished company: the ‘72 Stingray, the Audi RS6, the Delorean, the ‘75 (?) Nova, the 1950-something Ford and of course the FleetWOOD. On a side note, three of those cars belong to the same guy; I know this because he does work for VMware.